Seed were collected from fruit produced by open pollinated and unnamed kiwi plants of Actinidia chinensis Planch growing in a cultivated area of Fang County Hubei Province of P.R. China. Seedlings developed from the collected seeds were planted and grown in an experimental orchard and evaluated for fruit quality parameters, maturity date, flesh color and appearance. ‘AU Golden Dragon’ was selected as a potential commercial cultivar from this experimental evaluation planting because of its excellent plant performance, earliness of maturity and fruit quality, fragrance and yield. ‘AU Golden Dragon’ has the best fruit quality and performance of the very early maturing cultivars of Actinidia chinensis Planch. The new cultivar is able to be asexually reproduced by softwood and hardwood rooted cuttings or by budding or grafting onto a seedling or rooted cutting grown rootstock with the unique characteristics being transferred through succeeding asexual propagations. In China ‘AU Golden Dragon’ was vegetatively propagated by grafting and planted for evaluation in experimental plantings in Shanghui, Jiangsu, Fusion and Shanxi provinces. ‘AU Golden Dragon’ was vegetatively propagated by softwood and hardwood cuttings and cleft grafting for evaluation in experimental plantings in Central Alabama. This cultivar has had excellent and equal performance in both China and Alabama test locations. The fruit of ‘AU Golden Dragon’ is elliptical in shape with a brown smooth skin, very early maturity, excellent flavor with a non acid sweet taste, and high soluble solids and percent dry matter content.